"There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it. But you do not stand alone."

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Diversions, Curiosities and Miscellaneous Points of Interest

I found everything linked to here interesting, fun, beautiful or otherwise worthy of attention. It's all non-politics, because that's the mood I'm in right now. And some of these links are old (in internet years), although I think none are the worse for that. Enjoy.

The existence of Santa Claus Can be proved in five ways... The fourth way is taken from the grades which are found in Christmas spirit. Indeed, in this world, among men there are some of more and some of less Christmas spirit. But "more" and "less" is said of diverse things according as they resemble in their diverse ways something which is the "maximum." Therefore there must be something which has the most Christmas spirit, and this we call Santa Claus.

• Kitty Genovese's brutal murder with 38 witnesses looking on and doing nothing -- which became a modern parable of apathy and indifference -- is mentioned in a lot of history books, although (as for many, I suspect) it's most vivid from its role in art such as Harlan Ellison's "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" and Moore & Gibbons's Watchmen. Well, a contemporary investigation shows that the mythic aspect -- the 38 indifferent bystanders -- may be largely a myth, originating in the early NY Times article that brought it to the public's attention. The author argues that the police were most likely called, possibly many times (it was back before such calls were tape recorded) and that few of the witnesses understood -- or, even, had reason to understand -- what was in progress. Worth a read if you've heard of this famous case.